The Debt to Society
by puppo530
Summary: Modern AU in which Javert is a book inspector for the public library and Jean Valjean is a patron who checks out Les Misérables, trudges through it for nineteen years, and then returns it without paying the hefty late fine. He spends the rest of his life running away from Javert and the seemingly enormous fine hanging over his head wherever he goes. Will cover entire book.
1. I: I: A Left-wing Man

**PART I**

**FANTA (TM)**

Chapter I

A Left-wing Man

In 2015 Charles Bishop decided to stay at the Marriott Hotels and Resorts in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. There was nothing too particularly strange or otherwise unusual about his visit there, he was a simple traveling salesman who happened to be stopping by in Kansas City to do what all salesmen do. No one paid him any attention for he didn't attract attention. He was a simple man on a simple job in a simple city. Though it doesn't really advance the plot of this story any further, we might as well expound on how he came to stay at this particular hotel on this particular date.

Bishop graduated from the University of Ohio in the summer of 2008. He participated in all of the usual graduate fanfare that takes place immediately after graduation, but then he immediately decided it was time for him to move. With much determination in his lungs, he packed his bags in the cramped dorm room he had stayed for four years (yes, he was one of those people) and drove a full eighty miles to Columbus, Ohio. There, he found the new apartment he would be sharing with a complete stranger, and moved in.

It should be noted that our single character in this story is a staunch Democrat. He was so firm in his beliefs and absolutely unwavering in his ideals that he earnestly hoped he would be sharing a two-bed one-bath apartment with anyone but a member of the opposite side of the political scale. To him, even a serial killer would be preferred over a Republican, at least a serial killer would try to hide their wrongdoings. When he walked through the door of this house, however, he discovered that it was filled with McCain campaign posters and bumper stickers. Horrified, he turned around to run back to his car and drive as far away from the apartment as possible, when his new roommate appeared from out of the bathroom. He had been spied. He could not leave.

"Name's Bruce." The man extended his hand in an act of friendship. Charles' excuse was that he was carrying luggage, so he stared at the outstretched hand for a number of seconds. Bruce dropped his hand onto the handles of the luggage. "I might as well show you where you'll be staying." Charles warily followed the Republican to his new bedroom. It was plain and simple as a bedroom could be, but it reeked of body odor. "Yeah, sorry about the smell," Bruce addressed, "The last guy who was here never seemed to take a shower. I didn't have time to, you know, do a power wash of the carpets and wall before you got here." He let out a small chuckle, and upon seeing Charles' motionless, decided to leave him to his own devices. It took a while for Charles to calm down enough to actually go to sleep, but he eventually did at five in the morning.

Living with Bruce was not as arduous of a task as Charles had originally thought, but he still hated it. Every time he would see those dreaded McCain posters, he would cringe and have to seclude himself in his room for a good thirty minutes at the least for the feeling of rising vomit to pass. Especially dangerous were the times when Charles would walk in on Bruce watching the political debates on CNN. They would oftentimes start with Bruce yelling at the TV for some opinion with which he didn't agree. Charles would then come in out of nowhere and backup the original opinion. Bruce would counter with a strongly-worded opinion about something vaguely similar to the topic. The rest of the discussion would be rife with slippery slopes, ad hominems, and a plethora of other logical fallacies. By the end, as with most discussions concerning politics, both parties (quite literally in this sense) would leave angry and the topic would be left unresolved.

Charles was indeed in the presence of an unfamiliar light, so they say. Every once in a while, it is refreshing almost to see things from an opposing viewpoint. However, these things only work if both sides are willing to be open that just maybe their ideas are wrong. With both Charles and Bruce, their ideas were absolute and perfect. No adjustments were needed. If one of their ideas was wrong, they would insist that it really wasn't as they quietly change their opinion in the slightest bit and then insist that was their viewpoint the entire time. Their internal political meters would always remain fixed, and that would be their own fault. However, the point of digressing on this story is not to give commentary on politics, it is instead intended to provide some background for our solitary character (spoilers but Bruce doesn't really matter in the overall story) as he walks into a local restaurant.

As he entered the small diner, he spotted a small crowd of reporters and cameras. He wondered what they could possibly be doing there. He passed it off, however, with a quick wave of his hand. He sat down at a table, ordered a beverage and a small meal, and fumed over the tirade he just had with his roommate. He took a small bite of his sandwich, smashed his jaws together and tried to ignore the commotion that was happening near the front of the restaurant. Soon, the crowd peeled away as they shuffled their way towards him and Charles saw why the media and the crowd was there.

"Hello, sir. How are you this day?" the center of the crowd asked. Charles threw down his sandwich, surged up, and grasped the man's hand that was extended towards him.

"I am great now that I've seen you." Charles' hand grew tired from shaking the man's hand for so long, so he dropped it to his side. "What are you doing in Ohio, at this restaurant?"

"I'm just dropping by. Are you a student?"

"Oh, no, sir. I've graduated just this year."

"That's great! What did you major in?"

"Business."

"That's wonderful. I wish you luck. You look like you'd make a great salesman."

"Thank you, sir," Charles shouted at the man as he was swept away by the crowd of pedestrians and reporters. Charles finished the rest of his sandwich with glee and left the diner. The next day, he submitted a résumé to a business with the quote, '"You look like you'd make a great salesman." - Barack Obama, presidential candidate' underneath his references section.

Amazingly, he was granted the job.

It was under this job that Charles Bishop was staying at the Marriott hotel in Kansas City, Missouri in 2015. He awoke precisely at seven ante meridiem, departed his hotel room (number 305), and arrived downstairs for the continental breakfast that was served. He piled on plastic eggs and unintentionally dried fruits and made his way to a table in the far corner. He took a swig from his glass of orange juice, remembered that he had brushed his teeth that morning, and immediately spit out the pulpy liquid back into the cup.

This improper action did cause him to glance over to his right, in sort of the way that a sneeze would cause a sea cucumber to look at a mollusk in a particularly bad joke. On the table beside him sat a large book being read by a complete stranger. He spied at the top of the page and gleaned the title: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. He initiated the conversation with the stranger that follows:

"Excuse me, sir, but I happen to notice you're reading Les Misérables."

"Oh yes, I am. It's really good and I highly recommend it."

"Isn't it extremely long?"

"Yeah. This copy is over 1,400 pages. I'm only on page 500."

"How long have you been reading that thing?"

"I've been slowly making my way through it for the past nineteen years."

Silence.

"I'm a slow reader, okay?"

"Hey, I'm not judging."

"It's a really good book, okay? I checked it out from the library nineteen years ago and I've been on the run ever since. I keep moving and running away but they keep sending book inspectors after me. This last one forced me to run back to my bedroom, pack my bags, and jump out the bathroom window."

"You're on the run from book inspectors from the public library?"

"Do you know how much money I owe after nineteen years? I'd like to know because I keep running away before they tell me exactly how much I owe. I'd assume it's a lot."

"I'm sure it is. It's worth it though, it's a great story."

"You've read it?"

"Oh, no, I just watched the movie."

"There's a movie?"

"Yeah, it's like three hours long though."

"That's shorter than nineteen years! Where can I watch it?"

"Oh, I have it in my luggage upstairs. I can just give it to you."

"You'd do that for me? You really would?"

"Yeah, sure. It's like ten bucks. Come on. My room number's 305."

Later that day, a book was dropped off at the public library. At first glance, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. Upon closer inspection, however, one would discover that it happened to be one of the longest books the library has, Les Misérables. Upon even further inspection, one would discover that there was a small plastic rectangle on the inside. The librarian running the book returns found this book. It was a gift from heaven for the librarian. He picked up the book and pressed it against his nose, smelling the sweet scent of a book that had been returned after nineteen years of being checked out. The librarian soon discovered the library card inside. On the back was scribbled with a pencil, "I guess I won't be needing this anymore, Book Inspector Chase." On the reverse side was printed in ink:

Name: John Matthew Valentine

Library: Kansas City Public

Card #: 24601


	2. I: II: The Championship Affair

Chapter II

The Championship Affair

It now becomes necessary to digress on an important micro-industrial revolution in a small town in Mississippi. In this small town there is located a regional manufacturing facility for a global packaging company. This packaging company largely produces aluminum cans for many large beverage companies. One company in particular, which shall henceforth be referred to as C_-C_ to protect its identity, needed several millions of cans regularly to be shipped to a bottling plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This was one of the largest, if not the largest, purchasers of the packaging companies aluminum cans, so of course they were of the utmost importance and great strides were regularly taken to improve efficiency and reduce cost.

In the process of making aluminum cans, the production company must first acquire large amounts of aluminum, as is expected. Great spindles (though it now comes into question as to whether rolls would be of better use in this context) of aluminum are regularly lifted by forklifts and positioned at the beginning of the factory line. From here, two workers would unravel a small portion of the roll and carry it a short distance to a machine into which the aluminum would be fed. The aluminum would be caught by the robotic device and pulled into the first stage of the process: cutting flat disks out of which the full cans would be made.

A man, who was a stranger to the small town, happened upon this production company one fateful day. This man noticed that, after being cut from the great spindle of aluminum, the soon-to-be cans went down one chute to be processed while the excess aluminum went down another chute. When he inquired as to where the chute led, he was informed that it just led to a nearby dump. The man speculated that the excess aluminum could be redirected into different but similar machines to the first to be cut into even more cans. Then, the excess aluminum of those machines could be melted and rolled into more spindles of metal with the intention of restarting the whole process over again.

There are many reasons why this one idea was extremely beneficial. For one thing, it decreased the cost of producing the aluminum cans, which was good for the manufacturer. For another thing, it lowered the cost of the produced cans, which was good for C_-C_. For yet another thing, it would allow for increased wages for the workers at the manufacturing company, which was good for the district. Lastly, it lowered the final product which C_-C_ produced, which was generally good for a large portion of the beverage market. So it becomes plain as to how the stranger who had walked into town one day and took a tour of a packing company soon became extremely wealthy.

Not much was known about the man. He seemed to wander into town as a dog would get into a bed. At first he circled around the edge of it, studying it for some reason. When it had met his unknown standards, he entered. At once he travelled to the nearest hotel, got a room, and slept. In the morning, rumors were abound about the mysterious man who had arrived. Soon, everyone discovered that no one knew anything about him. He had no papers, no name, no passport, nothing.

The night after he arrived, a fire started in the town hall. Without waiting for the fire department to arrive, the stranger dove into the flaming building and rescued two children. From then on he was accepted as one of the townspeople. No one knew about his past and they didn't ask. It didn't matter. Whatever his true name was, he was from then on known as Mr. Maddie.

Now we must direct our attention away from the small town towards Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As it has already been explained, this city is the home of a C_-C_ Company bottling plant. Without going into too much detail, again to preserve the status of C_-C_, this company produces popular beverages in a variety of flavors to sell to the general public. One of its beverages is known by the name of "Fanta (TM)".

In 2002, Fanta (TM) began an advertising campaign of a quartet of woman mock pop stars named the Fantanas. They were designed to be in commercials and other media of advertising to promote Fanta (TM). It was with those four women that the tradition began. Later, in 2004, the four original Fantanas were replaced by a new quartet of women. This happened again later on with four new girls. This story is not concerned with any of those twelve people, though.

In 2009, Fanta (TM) announced that it was restarting the advertising campaign, this time with yet again four new women. After a contest to see who would be the fourth Fantana, these new singers assembled. There was Brittany (her last name was not released to the public) as Lily, the pineapple-flavored Fantana, Katherine Wilkes as Melody, the grape-flavored Fantana, and one more (again, not released) as Isabela, the strawberry-flavored Fantana. There was also a fourth one. This last one was the orange-flavored Fantana. She was the leader. Her stage name was Summer. Her actual name was Diana Carr.

For two glorious years, the Fantanas were back. They were in commercials advertising Fanta (TM). They were on billboards, striking poses. They were public figures and were recognized as such. However, their relative anonymity did leave them as pseudo-celebrities. They were known, but they were not known.

It may be pleasing to you to know that in real life they were great friends. They oftentimes hung out together going through the streets of Baton Rouge as the quartet of women they were. It may also be pleasing to you to know that they also had a partner with them. Each Fantana was paired with a man that would follow at heel wherever they went. Well, this was the case for each Fantana except one, Summer. Sadly for Summer, she was not the pants-wearer, to borrow a phrase from popular culture, in the relationship. This was the case simply because her romantic partner was her boss, a Mr. Felix Thomas.

Oh how these dual quartets were in love with one another. For two glorious years, they walked together, danced together, dined together, did practically everything together. They would go to bars, drink until they were drunk, and then speak of life in all their inebriated wisdom. Felix, being the leader and boss of both groups, was the most inclined to speak his mind. On one such occasion, after having one too many apple-turnovers, which in retrospect was a strange thing to be serving at a bar in the first place, and a few too many beers, Felix decided to speak.

"My friends! Let us rest! We mustn't try to ruin this fine day with action. Remember that we must live in the moment, this is undeniably true, but the moment need not be so rowdy. Note well, my friends, that flowing beer gathers no foam."

"A rolling stone gathers no moss!" yelled Blackwell, who was one of the workers on set for many of the Fantanas commercials and who loved Katherine, whom he called Favorite, as he drained another mug of beer.

"And as I said earlier," Felix continued, "Vive más!" At this glorious pun, the bar erupted with laughter and singing. Felix put up his hands. "Friends! Compose yourselves! Even though that was a truly amazing pun, we must learn to restrain ourselves. It does not do one well to drink or eat or do anything really in excess. Everything in moderation. Even water, the very source of life, must be handled with restraint. Too much water and one will drown in their own lungs. Don't think that I'm trying to disrespect the truly heavenly pun I have just made, I am only trying to implore you to remember these words. Everything ends, my friends. We will all die someday, so we must make use of our lives as we see fit."

"What are you going on about, Felix?" Diana wondered aloud.

"I'm building up to someone, my dear. An announcement!" The rest of the bar quieted down as they all turned their attention towards Felix. "Us four men have prepared a wonderful surprise for our wonderful lovers."

"A surprise!" exclaimed Favorite.

"Tell us, Mr. Thomas, what is the surprise?" begged Brittany.

Felix raised his hand. "Settle down, ladies. One mustn't ruin a good surprise! Come, let us go. We'll show you the surprise when we get there."

A few minutes later, the eight amores arrived at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport. They climbed out of the two taxis they had hailed, one filled with the women, who spent the entire trip discussing what the surprise must be, the other filled with men, who were finalizing their plans. When they realized that they were at the airport, the women exclaimed with glee. Surely, they would be going on some wonderful trip to someplace extremely romantic.

The men led them inside the airport and to their gate. After proceeding through security, the eight boarded a plane, whose destination was unknown to the female gender. The four men handed the tickets to the woman behind the desk that allowed the women to go through. When the four females questioned why the men weren't joining them, they simply responded that they were going to get something to eat really quickly and that they would be with them soon.

The door closed behind them. The curtain was slammed shut. There were only four open seats. They quickly discovered that they were being flown to a small town in Mississippi. They questioned why they would go someplace so foreign to them. They wondered what could prompt something so strange. They also wondered where their boyfriends were. The plane finally took off, leaving the four women stranded in the sky.

After the plane was finally in the air, Diana looked in the carry-on bag that Felix had packed for her. Inside the top pocket was an envelope. The envelope had no address, but simply these words inscribed on the outside, "This is the surprise". The four women quickly opened the letter and read it to themselves. This is what it said:

"Dear lovers,

Please understand that this does not come easily to us. Please understand that we have bosses. Bosses! You hardly understand the meaning of the word, seeing how one of you is romantic with your boss. Our bosses demand progress and development. We can't continue to produce the same dull material for much longer. After two years of "The Fantanas", we regret to inform you that we are firing you, to put it bluntly. Do not despair, for we have provided means of work for the four of you. If you will accept the job, you will have an opportunity to work for the company that produces the aluminum cans we use. Please forget about us quickly, and don't try to see us again.

Signed: Blackwell

Merchant

O'Leary

Felix Thomas

P.S. The flight is paid for."

While the rest of the girls were laughing at the wonderful joke that the four men had played on them, Diana was silent. A few minutes later, after the initial laughter had died down, she made her way into the bathroom. She sat on the toilet and wept for several minutes. For she had not only devoted a portion of her life to Felix, she had also devoted her body to him.

A few months later, Diana Carr gave birth to a Charlotte Thomas.

* * *

**(AN): And you all thought that naming the first part of this fanfic Fanta (TM) was just for a joke.**


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